PASTORING

Churches are different from classrooms,

With their schedules and posted dates,

Where learning is sectioned out,

In predictable, expected rates.

2

Learning in church is more passive,

Some come and go without notes,

Some seem to think the pastor’s main job

Is to warn about sowing wild oats.

3

A pastor is to spread the Word,

He is to prayerfully teach,

Instructing in thoughtful mouthfuls

Balancing what he does preach.

4

Here is a principle, a thought

There is a line upon line.

Repletion is tied to learning,

The logic should be quite fine.

5

Preaching should be holy, anointed,

Emotion welcome, but not ruling.

Churches should include eternal facts,

A free, godly, Bible schooling.

– eab, May ‘07

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PASTORING

Churches are different from classrooms,

With their schedules and posted dates,

Where learning is sectioned out,

In predictable, expected rates.

 

Learning in church is more passive,

Some come and go without notes,

Some seem to think the pastor’s main job

Is to warn about sowing wild oats.

 

A pastor is to spread the Word,

He is to prayerfully teach,

Instructing in thoughtful mouthfuls

Balancing in all he does preach.

 

Here is a principle, a thought

There is a line upon line.

Repletion is tied to learning,

The logic should be quite fine.

 

Preaching should be holy, anointed,

Emotion welcome, but not ruling.

Churches should include eternal facts,

A free, godly, Bible schooling.

                – eab, 5/8/07

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LIFE ABOVE SIN

Thank You Lord,

For Thy salvation plan,

The glorious privilege,

You have given man

To live above sin.

 

The privilege of moving

Forever out,

Of the quicksand traps

Of fear and doubt,

That man was born in.

          – eab, 7/76

Written while pastoring in East Tennessee, Blount Co, Friendsville

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SEA SIDE BREAKFAST

Come, leave your night of toiling

On the boisterous “boiling,”

Of an open-faced sea.

Come, leave the laborious net,

And the fish you DID get,

By simply obeying Me.

 

Come and dine; be ye filled,

‘Tis your Master who has willed,

A meal for weary men.

Come now, and be refreshed,

Far more than you had guessed

Possible while in sin.

                – eab, 7/80

Written while pastoring Christ Church-Bible Methodist, Friendsville, TN.

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Eden? – No, Better!

Poison ivy didn’t grow in the bowers of Eden;

Or, if it did, it wasn’t poisonous there.

And the wolf didn’t live in the glens of the Garden;

Or, if so, he was gracious to share.

 

And we can look back in anger at Adam’s great sin,

And we can wish to have lived in his place.

But there cometh a day much like Eden and better,

For all the redeemed,

ALL the redeemed of our entire race.  

 – eab, 6/86

Written while pastoring in Loogootee, IN

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Stand Up and Sing!

Stanza 1

What appears to man to be,

A defeat on rugged tree.

Was the triumph of all time and space.

He died that’s to be sure,

But arose to ever endure,

Thus saving the whole human race.  – eab, 2/27/05

 

Written while pastoring the Pilgrim Holiness Church of Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

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Tares and Wheat

The tares and wheat together grow,

At harvest time angels will know,

They’ll separate good from the bad,

The tares to be burned, Oh, how sad!

Are you wheat?  Do you for Christ glow?  -eab, 2/2/07

Penned in eastern Ontario, Canada, while pastoring the Kingston Pilgrim Holiness Church.

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Day, Dusk, Dark

For thousands of years it had been thus;

Day – then dusk – and the dark.

Light to night. 

It seemed absurd,

That the negative would be the last to be heard,

And positive leave without a remark.

 

As it had done, now it came again,

Beauty – then border – and then black.

Light to night,

Brilliant to dull;

Beautiful landscapes and pastels now null,

By the absence of sunlight, Oh, the lack.  – eab, 12/14/79

Written in East Tennessee, while pastoring Christ Church-Bible Methodist

 

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Lpost – Zack

Whether his name was Zacchaes or Zacharias is unknown but in the hotel industry he became known as *Zack.

 

It is not known if he inherited Bethlehem‘s “Best Eastern” from his family,

his wife’s family, or bought it out­right. 

 

But on THAT famous night he was the proprietor of the inn.

 

Zack may have been young or old, the record does not say. We are not informed if he was wealthy or poor – barely meeting his pay­ments on the inn.

 

Was Zack tall or short, skinny or fat? 

No docu­ments exist to acclaim his great learning or lack thereof.

 

Was Zack a gentleman with a handsome profile or did his face reveal low breeding? Were his words kind and friendly or were they harsh? 

 

We’re not told if he was attired in the latest Roman robe or if his appearance was con­servatively Hebrew.  Was he mar­ried?  Had HIS wife ever given birth to a child?  Had HE ever traveled from Bethlehem and needed a room?

 

What was he worth the night he died?  What were his perks?  How much did he earn each week?  Where was he born?  What was his genealogy? 

 

How long did he own the “famous” inn?  Did Zack enjoy plain mutton chops and bread or was he a connoisseur of Mediterranean dining?

 

Did he race camels, collect Hittite pottery or trivialize his time with some other hobby?

Were his days simple or scheduled seg­ments of managerial perfection? 

 

Zack’s hair, was it black, styl­ishly cut or was it a mere shadow of its former glory with an ex­ceedingly wide part?

 

We do not know his race, face, pace, or even his grace.  Was he a faithful worshipper at the local synagogue or had he imbibed “modern thoughts” about God? 

 

Did he ever learn who his AL­MOST Guest was?

 

For a key player in history we know so little about him.

 

HISTORY HAS LEFT BUT ONE FACT, ABOUT ZACK

                 – HE HAD NO ROOM FOR JESUS!

 

Written while pastoring Bible Holiness Chapel, Oelrichs, SD and printed in the Hot Springs Star (newspaper) Dec., 1995

 

* No, we have not discovered some old scroll detailing the inns of the Holy Land, but allow me to use Zack in stead of saying “the innkeeper” each time and it could even make this story more real.

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Martin Rinkart – death, Dec. 8, 1649

“Now Thank We All Our God”   (stanza 2)

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

Martin Rinckart died 12/8/1649, Germany (born 1586).  He was a Lutheran who began pastoring at 31 in Eilenburg, Saxony, his home community.  Between the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and the Plague of 1637 Rinckart buried some 5,000 victims – holding as high as 50 funerals a day.

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